Broadband Blog

Well it is happy days for the Finns tomorrow (1^st July 2010) as they are set to become the first folk in the world to have the legal right to broadband internet access. The legislation will force internet providers to supply all homes in Finland with at least a 1Mbps broadband internet connection.

Over here in the UK there are government ‘promises’ and ‘commitments’ that by 2012 we will have at least double the broadband speed of 1Mbps that Finland’s 5 million people will have access to from tomorrow. Whether those promises and commitments actually translate into an actual legal right at any point though is anybody’s guess.

By 2015, the promises and commitments from Finland’s government are that every home will be connected to a 100Mbps broadband internet connection. That will still leave us UK residents quite some way behind in the broadband speed league tables it would seem.

The population of Finnish homes with connections from internet providers also beats the UK hands down as we have just 73 per cent online compared to the Finns’ estimated 96 per cent.

Suvi Linden, the communications minister in Finland, said that his government reasoned that the internet was no longer just for entertainment and that they considered it to be a part of Finns everyday life. So why don’t our ministers feel the same way?

In a recent survey by BBC World Service, 4 out of 5 respondents from around the globe thought that access to the internet was ‘a fundamental right.’ Yet, a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said that the UK’s obligations only committed them to ensuring that ‘virtually all communities will have broadband.’

Isn’t it about time that we caught up with the Finns?

If you think you have the right to fast broadband internet but don’t know who the best internet providers are then get yourself over to our Broadband homepage to compare the best internet deals and prices.

Tags : broadband deals, internet legislation
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 at 11:45 pm and is filed under Home Broadband.
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